


Bunkbeds

by AnagramRMX



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Episode: s02e08 And the Point of Salvation, Episode: s02e09 And the Happily Ever Afters, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 23:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9407549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnagramRMX/pseuds/AnagramRMX
Summary: Ezekiel moves in with Jacob. Jacob isn't sure when that happened or when he agreed to it, but he isn't complaining.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set in AU Season 2, plot taken from a conversation between John Rogers and some tumblr gal. (http://jazekiel.tumblr.com/post/148422113246/fyeahthelibrarians-x)  
> @John Rogers: Stop giving me fic ideas. I don't have time to work on all of them.  
> warning: not beta'd, and revised only while the author was exhausted. First fic for this ship, and not the tense I usually write in, so i apologize for any inconsistencies, characterizations, or blatant grammatical errors.

It starts with 10000 volts to the chest.

They're only on their third mission since the team got back together, and it's barely been a week since they dealt with the Hoklonote. Jake's the first to admit he's a little raw from dealing with his father, and when they end up at a famous art museum, Jake is happy to hang out with the museum staff to learn more about the recent ‘accidents’.

But then Eve comes back limping, dragging unconscious Ezekiel behind her, and Jacob regrets it.

Jesus, when is he gonna learn? Splitting the party is always a bad idea, and he knows that. So why does he keep doing it? Why does he keep letting them go off unprotected? He knows he can’t save them from everything, and he’s nowhere as good as Eve, but that doesn’t mean he can’t try.

"He should be fine when he wakes up," Jenkins confirms when they get back to the Library and he uses an artifact to help Ezekiel heal. "I'd prefer to have him watched, though, just in case there's an adverse effect from the Caduceus. Putting thieves with it never works out well. Any volunteers?"

"Volunteers?" Eve asks, pressing a cold compress to her injured knee. "I mean, not to presume you'd do it, but you usually do."

Jenkins shrugs. "I do, but I'd rather get the cursed electric chair under lock and key, if you don't mind. It might take a while to move without getting electrocuted."

"I got it." Jacob doesn't even wait to hear the others offer before he stands up. Baird's injured, after all, and while he respects Cassandra's tenacity, he doubts that she could carry Ezekiel. "Anyone got an address for him?" They could pull out the cots, but Jacob would prefer to get some sleep too, even if that means sleeping on the couch.

Eve shakes her head, and if Jenkins knows something, he doesn't offer it up before walking back out the door to get to the chair.

"He hasn't told me either," Cassandra confirms as well. "Are you cool with taking him to your apartment?"

It isn't like he really has a better option. With Cassandra to open doors for him, Jake carries Ezekiel out to his truck and drives towards his apartment complex. It’s probably the first place he’s lived that feels like an actual person lives there, instead of like a movie set he put together to provide the background for Jacob Stone the rig worker. There are paintings on the walls and knick-knacks from antique stores laying around on the shelves. The desk in the corner is strewn with books and papers that nearly drown his laptop, and a lumpy couch covered in pillows so that he can at least pretend it’s comfortable.

It's a little harder to get inside as he carries Ezekiel in, but he manages to do it and worries a little about whether the sheets are clean or not. By that point, though, he’s already set Ezekiel down, and he’s a little exhausted himself, so he decides to ignore it. He walks back to the couch and sets an alarm to wake him up every hour, just to double check that Ezekiel’s ankles didn’t sprout wings or some shit.

Not that it's necessary.

He can't sleep for most of the night anyway, and it's only partially because of the spring digging into his back. If he could focus less on himself and his problems, maybe stuff like this wouldn't happen so often. It provides a steady stream of thoughts as he gets up to check on Ezekiel periodically, feeling guiltier each time.

At sometime around 4, he looks up and sees Ezekiel poking his head out of Jacob's bedroom looking completely baffled.

"Oh, hey..." Jacob grumbles.

"Hey," Ezekiel responds, sounding tired. "Why am I here?"

"The artifact shocked the crap out of you,” Jacob answers simply, and after seeing Ezekiel’s eyes widen slightly, he adds, “Everyone else is fine, and we had an artifact to help with healing the effects of electric shocks, but there may be side effects. Jenkins wanted someone to keep an eye on you. I volunteered."

Ezekiel is either too tired for sarcasm, or he doesn't know what to say about it, and just wanders a little further out of the room and takes a look around. Jacob rolls off the couch, groaning a little as he stretches out. When he looks back at Ezekiel, the thief is watching him with a puzzled expression.

"You didn't have to put me in your bed."

Jacob sighs. "It wouldn't have been my bed if you'd have told anyone where your apartment is." He rubs at his back again.

Ezekiel bristles at the suggestion, and Jacob wonders if that came out more aggressive than he meant it. "What you don't know can't be told to the cops."

The statement, while fair, makes Jacob frown, and he grits his teeth to keep it from showing on his face. He gets it. It hasn't been _that_ long since Peru, after all, and Jacob knows he made a few harsh threats when they were all angry with each other. Still, he doesn’t know how to take it back, and he can’t force someone to trust him. He knows that better than anyone.

“Fine,” he sighs. “Then can you at least tell one of the others? I don’t care if you don’t want me to know, but at least you won’t end up here next time you get hurt.”

Ezekiel smirks at that, though. “Oh come on, cowboy. You know you love me.”

“I’ll love you more when you’re the one that has to sleep on this stupid couch.”

(-:-)

The next time he finds Ezekiel in his apartment, Jacob's head is pounding and he doesn't know if he’s hung over or if he took a cinderblock to the face. Or how he got home. He’s still dressed in the clothes he was wearing yesterday, and everything after five o’clock is kind of fuzzy in his mind’s eye.

He goes looking for his cellphone, about to call Eve and ask if she knows, when he walks into the living room and finds Ezekiel on the couch, a bowl of cereal in his lap and cellphone in hand.

“Jones?”

Ezekiel looks up. “Hey. This couch is uncomfortable as fuck. How’s your head?”

“I kind of want it chopped off,” Jacob grumbles. “What are you...”

“Eh, you’ll probably want it back, even if it does make a great target for red caps.” Ezekiel doesn’t answer the question, going back to his phone. “Your Wi-Fi sucks. What service are you with? Because this is completely unacceptable.”

Jacob just blinks at Ezekiel. There are so many questions trying to push through the throbbing pain, but none of them quite make it through. If nothing else, he knew Ezekiel was a professional, and if there was something Jacob really needed to know, Ezekiel would have told him. So, instead of answering, Jake just shuffles towards the kitchen. “I need coffee.”

He’s not sure what happens after that, but three days later, Ezekiel is in his living room again watching TV, and still complaining about the Wi-Fi speed. Neither of them are injured, so he doesn’t have a good reason to be there, but it’s five in the blessed AM and Jacob stayed up late writing a paper the night before. He’s tired, so he doesn’t even ask what Ezekiel is doing before going to make breakfast. At the third question about how he lives with the torture of 10Mbps, he tells Ezekiel that if it bothers him so much, then _he_ can be the one to fix it.

He should have realized that that was an invitation.

Ezekiel doesn’t appear in his apartment the next morning, but there’s a mysterious new router next to his TV, and a post-it note with the log in info on its side. Apparently, his new router’s name is “Ezekiel was Here”, and the password long and incomprehensible. He kind of wants to smack Ezekiel for it, but he also discovers that it’s already been entered into his phone and laptop, and that it’s probably a security thing. Ezekiel always gets of touchy about security after all. The first time he pulls up YouTube, there isn’t any buffer time, and it’s pretty awesome.

At the Library, Jacob thanks him, and rolls his eyes when Ezekiel acts like it was his sacred duty. But Ezekiel also puts Lucky Charms on Jacob’s shopping list a week later, so Jacob figures the least he can do is buy it and not complain.

(-:-)

Jacob doesn’t really question the arrangement that develops.

It’s not that it isn’t weird, because it is _definitely_ weird for someone to repeatedly break into his apartment just to chill there. But, then again, so is his day job, which suggests that his coworkers are weird too. Plus, it’s not like having Ezekiel around is a bad thing. He might be annoying, but at least he’s annoying and helpful. And it’s not like Jacob is gonna complain about getting to ogle someone with Ezekiel’s body first thing in the morning, either.

It’s also reassuring when he walks into the living room and finds the thief hanging around. He might not know what Ezekiel’s doing anywhere else, but for however long he’s in Jacob’s apartment, he’s probably not endangering himself.

Maybe.

Jacob’s a little suspicious that this is just where he’s hiding from the cops these days.

But whether he’s harboring a fugitive or not, it becomes normal.

Ezekiel spends the morning after Stumpy the gargoyle’s demise pouting in the living room, and Jacob pours him a comforting bowl of cereal.

When the sisters that live in the apartment above him start one morning screaming at each other, Jacob is incredibly amused to hear Ezekiel get fed up with it too and start repeatedly blasting the words “Shut up” from the TV speakers as loudly as possible.

On weekends, Ezekiel tinkers with different electronic hardware while Jacob reads on the couch, and they laugh at each other when they get excited about their subjects.

And yeah, sometimes Jacob wakes up and Ezekiel drank the last of the milk, but he also starts a new pot of coffee every morning. Jacob thinks they’re equal.

All the same, it’s still kind of confusing. Surely Ezekiel has better places to be in the morning (like asleep, maybe?) than bumming at Jacob’s place. He has never actually seen Ezekiel enter his apartment, so he has no idea when he gets there or how he gets in. Ezekiel just laughs when he asks if he’s got shitty door locks, which isn’t comforting at all.

He doesn’t ever get an answer to the how, but he does figure out that ‘when’ is a lot earlier than he suspected.

It’s two days after they deal with the devil Sesselman. After a night at the library, and a day to themselves to recover from gas poisoning, Jacob was kind of expecting Ezekiel to be gone for a while. Because (again): sleep. Even magical tea didn’t cure everything immediately, and Eve had insisted they all rest. Jake was on her side, and would have been pretty pissed at Ezekiel for straining himself by breaking in again.

But, when he walks into the living room, he finds Ezekiel on the couch.

Asleep.

Asleep under some of Jacob’s spare bedding, at least, but that begs the question of how Ezekiel knew where extra blankets were and how long he had been there.

“Ezekiel?”

The thief grumbles incoherently, and after staring for a couple of seconds, Jacob walks to the kitchen and starts the coffee maker. He’s halfway through making himself breakfast when Ezekiel groans and sits up. He blinks around the room, and seems surprised to see Jacob already out and about.

“New rule,” Jacob starts, waving a butter knife in Ezekiel’s direction. “You don’t break in here when you’re sick. Feel free to come over, but call for fucks sake. I’ll let you in the front door.”

Ezekiel makes a face, and lays back down on the couch. “What’s the fun in that?”

Jacob shakes his head. The fun is not wondering if Ezekiel will end up falling off the side of the building or something. He doesn’t say that though, and keeps making breakfast as Ezekiel folds up the bedding and returns it to the hall closet. After he replaces it, the closet almost looks like it hasn’t been touched. Like he’s practiced getting it out and putting it back. How many times has Ezekiel slept on his couch? When did this happen?

“Have you been sleeping here every time you come over?”

Ezekiel doesn’t answer, pouring himself a cup of coffee as well. He’s frowning, though, which is answer enough for Jacob.

He comes up with at least a dozen responses to this information. He starts some of the sentences, before cutting himself off, and sometimes just waves his arms in exasperation at how ridiculous his life is. This isn’t normal.

His distress at least has the effect of making Ezekiel relax a little. He’s a few sips into his cup of coffee, and he looks amused at Jacob’s plight.

Eventually, Jacob just sighs, “Why?!”

Ezekiel grins at him. “Because seeing your smiling face first thing in the morning brings me _so_ much joy.”

Jacob tries not to take that too seriously. “No-I mean…” he trails off, because he doesn’t know what he means. He highly doubts that Ezekiel is homeless. Jacob has seen the figures he sells things for on the black market. There’s no way he doesn’t have a penthouse somewhere. But then _what is Ezekiel doing sleeping on his incredibly uncomfortable couch?!?!?!_

“Why here? My couch is the worst!”

“Can’t disagree there,” Ezekiel mutters with a shrug. “You should definitely invest in something more comfortable.”

“Ezekiel…” Jacob groans.

“What? It’s not like you have to buy bunk beds. Just halfway decent lounge furniture.”

“That’s…I don’t…”

But he can’t find the words to articulate how badly he doesn’t understand what’s happening here. Ezekiel is obviously not going to answer the actual question.

Jacob throws his arms up in exasperation, and when Ezekiel starts laughing at him, he throws a piece of toast at his face.

(-:-)

The new couch gets there two weeks later, and when Jacob wakes up, Ezekiel has already made breakfast. Actual breakfast cooked on a stove. Not cereal. The eggs are super overdone, but Jacob will take it as a thank you, even though the smile Ezekiel shoots him that day at the Library is more than enough.

Also, Ezekiel was right, and having a comfortable couch is probably the best money he’s spent in a very long time.

It’s around this time that he starts getting looks from the others. He knows Eve’s been suspicious, since they get into work at the same time most days now, but since he’s basically welcomed Ezekiel to sleep there whenever, neither of them have any reason not to talk about it at work.

Cassandra notices when Ezekiel is mad at him one day for eating all of the cereal. Yesterday he’d had a rough morning, and Jacob just hadn’t felt like cooking, and Ezekiel wasn’t there anyway. He thought he’d have a little longer to replace it.

“Um…isn’t it Jacob’s cereal?” she asks, edging around the question of _why were you at Jacob’s apartment first thing in the morning?_

Jacob groans. “No. It’s Ezekiel’s.”

Cassandra stares at the two of them for a second. “Why does Ezekiel keep cereal in your apartment?”

“Because he’s a fucking toddler and won’t cook for himself.”

“Excuse you! It is part of a balanced breakfast, and you eat it too, _apparently_.”

“Look, I’ll buy another box when I go to the store, just lay off…”

Jacob feels a little guilty about not answering Cassandra. Ezekiel is obviously rubbing off on him if he can dance around the question like that. But he really doesn’t know why Ezekiel keeps cereal at his apartment, aside from the fact that he likes cereal. He also has some fancy coffee that Jacob suspects costs more than his coffee maker. There’s also a toothbrush and a razor in the bathroom now that don’t belong to Jake.

He knows what it looks like, but he’s stopped asking questions, too.

He’s actually considered getting Ezekiel his own key, at this point. It’s not like he isn’t there often enough, and someone paid last month’s rent without telling him. But, Jacob also suspects that Ezekiel prefers breaking in anyway, so he decides not to.

One day, Jacob suggests getting dinner before they go home, and Ezekiel doesn’t even bat an eye before asking if it can be that pizza place he likes. The others come with them, but Ezekiel rides back to his apartment with him, and Jacob’s chest tightens a little when he tells Ezekiel goodnight.

(-:-)

They get trapped in a video game.

Jacob doesn’t know what happened. He knows Ezekiel was hurt and upset before they even knew what was going on, and that he had apparently lived through hundreds of iterations of this thing. He knows that means that people probably died every time.

But Ezekiel finally finds a way to get out, and Jacob doesn’t have a chance to ask him if he’s okay before they’re at the exit, and Ezekiel is suddenly falling into an abyss.

For the thirty seconds between when Ezekiel dropped and before he appears next to them, Jacob feels like he’s drowning.

But the feeling doesn’t go away when Ezekiel reappears, acting like he doesn’t remember anything.

If there’s one thing that Jacob has learned in the last few months, it’s that Ezekiel might not lie, but he doesn’t always tell the whole truth either. Jacob knows better than to believe he’s okay just because he says so.

Ezekiel disappears, and Jacob goes home alone that night. He can’t sleep, though, not while he’s still worried. At one in the morning, he hears the door to his apartment open.

He gets out of bed and slinks into the living room in time to see Ezekiel pressed up against the door with his head in his hands. He’s shaking, and Jacob wished he had been wrong.

“Ezekiel?”

His voice makes Ezekiel bolt up straight, holding up his hands like he might have to fight something. It takes him a moment to realize that it’s Jacob, and while he drops out of fighting stance, he doesn’t look any less scared.

“Hey,” he chokes out.

Jacob purses his lips. “Hey.” He takes a few steps forward, telegraphing all of his movements as he reaches out to put his hands on Ezekiel’s shoulders. “You remember, don’t you?”

Ezekiel doesn’t answer, but he looks away and the shaking gets worse. He doesn’t fight Jacob when he pulls him into a strong hug. He rocks Ezekiel gently, whispering, “It’s okay. Everyone is safe. We’re okay. You’re okay…”

It’s the last one that makes Ezekiel crack. “I…I don’t think I am.”

Jacob tightens his grip. How many times, he wonders. How many times had Ezekiel died for them in there, or had he watched them die? He keeps Ezekiel close to his chest until Ezekiel hugs him back, and then he pulls back slightly. “C’mon, you need sleep.”

He leaves one arm over Ezekiel’s shoulders, and looks only briefly at the couch before he feels sick. He’s not leaving Ezekiel alone for anything right now, fuck whatever nerves or pride he has. If Ezekiel is surprised when they go back to the bedroom, he doesn’t say anything.

They don’t talk as they settle in for the night, but Ezekiel stays close to Jacob, keeping his eyes locked on him. Jacob’s heart breaks a little for how distressed Ezekiel is, especially since neither of them know how to deal with this. Jacob runs through a list of all of the places he could look: artifacts, psychologists…anything. And he still doesn’t know how to make this better.

He settles for pulling Ezekiel into his arms, and kissing him on the forehead.

Eventually Ezekiel goes limp, but it’s not long before he wakes up gasping again, and Jacob has to start over with trying to calm him.

(-:-)

There’s no point in time that Jacob can remember being happier.

He had been hesitant to move to Cicely at first. It was so close to the small town life he had tried desperately to get away from, and so far from the adventuring and the wonders of the world he’d fallen in love with.

But he couldn’t pass up the university. The people he could meet there and the collaborations with the other professors would be phenomenal. It was only once he got there that he realized how much good he could do. Sheriff Baird was the first person he made friends with once he’d arrived, and his stomach churned when she told him about art smuggling that was rife in the city.

He agreed to help her without a second thought. With help of town celebrity Cassandra Cillian, they’d set up an operation to expose the kingpin.

Of course it would go wrong.

Jacob had walked right into an FBI operation, getting both him and loose cannon Ezekiel Jones caught by the Calini brothers. They turned out to be a good team, and once Ezekiel was in on their small town operation, he joined the team like he had always been there. It was simultaneously the best and worst thing that ever happened to Jake, because Jones is arrogant and infuriating, but he’s got a heart of gold, and Jacob couldn’t stop thinking about him.

One day, Ezekiel took a bullet for him, playing the hero, just like always. Jacob was left holding his hand on the way to the hospital, and as much as he wanted to kill him for being so reckless, he mostly just didn’t want to lose him. Ezekiel woke up the day afterwards, and the first thing he did was make a joke. Jacob settled for kissing the smile off his face, as opposed to strangling him.

Since then, they hadn’t defined what they were, too worried about Ezekiel’s past to make anything official, but they were never in doubt that they had something. Ezekiel had quietly started staying at Jacob’s place more and more often, quietly working his way into Jacob’s life like he was afraid that it would go wrong.

Jacob really wishes he would just move in.

He pulls him a little tighter as sunlight starts to filter in through the windows. It’s his favorite part of the day, just getting to enjoy being near before they have to face the world, with all of Jacob’s students and the close calls that came with Ezekiel’s job.

“You’re thinking too much,” Ezekiel grumbles sleepily, curling further into his chest.

“Wha-why would you think that?”

“Because you’re always pensive and possessive this early in the morning, and as much as I love that about you, I don’t want you worrying about me. I’ll always come home to you.” He Jacob’s hand to his lips, kissing his palm, and then the silver bracelet around his wrist. “I promised, didn’t I?”

Jacob kisses the top of his head. He did promise. The month after they’d started seeing each other, Ezekiel had gone undercover, and Jacob hadn’t handled his disappearance well. He stormed around for a month, hiding how scared he was that Ezekiel wouldn’t come back. One day, Ezekiel just turned up at the apartment with a new scar and a heavy heart, wanting nothing but to fall into Jacob’s arms and never leave again. They both knew he had to though, to keep Jacob and their friends safe.

To make it a little easier, he’d left the bracelet for Jacob to find when he went on his next mission, with the words “Property of Ezekiel Jones: I will return to collect it eventually. That means you, Stone” engraved on the inside. Basically, everything he could have expected from Ezekiel: the humor, the love, and running off on another adventure all in one moment.

It didn’t make it easier to let him go every day, but it did help with the waiting.

He eventually forced himself out of bed, much to Ezekiel’s displeasure, and started to get ready for the day.

After a shower and a shave, he found Ezekiel on the couch, eating cereal, and Jacob wanted to laugh. For some reason, the idea of his hard-case boyfriend refusing to cook always seemed ridiculous, but also a fact about Ezekiel that felt _so_ right, and never failed to make him fall in love just a little bit more.

He grabbed something to eat on the way to the university, dropping a kiss on top of Ezekiel’s head before walking out the door.

It wasn’t long before he got a call from Baird.

Someone had stolen the town’s Totem Pole.

(-:-)

Jacob literally doesn’t know the last time he slept. First they were in Prospero’s dream world, and then they were dealing with the eternal forest and time travel and exorcising William Shakespeare.

And then Eve and Flynn were gone.

The remaining Library staff hadn’t been dealing with that very well. Ezekiel had basically disappeared, and Cassandra had lost herself in a series of equations and smells, unable to cope. Jacob didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t help Cassandra until she was willing to talk to someone, and Ezekiel...

He was trying not to focus on it; he would deal with the grief as it came, but he had to keep himself busy. To feel like he was doing _something_. He wants to do more, to have saved Eve and Flynn, and figure this out with Cassandra like they had with her seizures.

He wants just five minutes with Ezekiel. The thief hasn’t sat still since they’d said goodbye to Flynn and Eve, and refuses to talk to anyone for more than thirty seconds before running off. He isn’t okay, and he isn’t dealing with it, and Jacob was willing to bet that it isn’t just their Guardian’s disappearance. It’s the game too, and it’s everything that had happened between him and Jacob in Cicely.

So he was doing what he could to help Jenkins reorder the library, instead. He camped out on the cots instead of going home, and didn’t get much sleep.

But then Ezekiel finds the plaque on the door, and they get their Guardian back.

It’s a relief, and Jacob feels lighter than he has in days.

And so, so tired.

He hears a yawn, and looks around to see Ezekiel is still around, a little less manic now that Eve is back. When Jacob catches his eye, Ezekiel smiles at him slightly, and once everyone has evened out from the excitement, they decide it’s time to go home.

Ezekiel is waiting by Jacob’s car when he goes outside, and Jacob is too tired to try and come up with anything witty to say about it. So he just unlocks the car, and gets inside. Ezekiel takes the middle seat, and slumps on Jacob’s shoulder for the entire drive to the apartment.

They get inside and start moving on autopilot. They fall into bed five minutes later, not bothering with the pretense of Ezekiel taking the couch, and sleep peacefully for the first time in days.

(-:-)

Jacob wakes up with Ezekiel drooling on his chest.

It takes him a few minutes to reorganize his thoughts. He’s in his apartment in Portland, not the house in Cicely. Eve and Flynn are safe and sound, and Prospero has been dealt with.

He and Ezekiel are in bed together, and Ezekiel didn’t just spend the night wracked with panic attacks from his time in the game.

It seems like a pretty damn good start to the day.

He starts nodding back off, only to open his eyes again when Ezekiel stirs.

With half of his face still smushed against Jake’s chest, Ezekiel opens one eye and looks around. When he realizes where he is, he sits up a little more, smiling at Jacob before leaning in and kissing him good morning.

It’s short and sweet. He even looks like he’s about to go back to sleep until he realizes what he just did.

For a few seconds, they both look at each other before Jacob pulls Ezekiel back into the kiss, relieved when Ezekiel kisses him back, tugging on the collar of his t-shirt like he can somehow get further into his space. The kiss breaks when Jacob decides he needs to look Ezekiel in the eye and ask, “This isn’t just because we were together in Cicely is it?”

Ezekiel pulls him back close, and tells him between kisses, “Of course not. We were together in Cicely because we both wanted this before. We just didn’t…okay, we did deal with it, but you don’t remember, and I was not in the headspace to remind you when we still had the chance.”

The statement puzzles Jacob, and the look on his face makes Ezekiel groan, pulling away and flopping onto his back in exasperation. “One day, I’m going to drive myself crazy with all the stuff you people don’t remember from the game.”

Jacob thinks back to it, because he really doesn’t remember, and he’s not sure if he wants Ezekiel to deal with some of those memories. But, Ezekiel sits up, and starts talking.

“Okay, brief recap, after like, the eighth time I nearly burned my hand, you got mad at me because you didn’t want me to hurt myself, and you got ridiculously sappy about how I mean a lot to you, and I’m really hoping I get to hear it again in regular life, because it was great, so I’ll stop there. Anyway, that happened, and I promised we’d hook up once Eve and Cassandra weren’t there, but then we reset. And there were a few times that were less cute and more horrifying, which, no. Not dealing with right now.

“And then I was completely out of it for a week, and then we were in Cicely and Prospero did it for us. But now I get to have it when it’s all real, and I fucking love you, by the way. So there isn’t any doubt-”

Before he can go off on another tangent, Jacob pulls him into another kiss. He’s still confused, but he’s got Ezekiel in his arms, and any other clarifications can wait until later.

(-:-)

As they start dating for real, Jacob isn’t sure what territory they’re in. They go on their first date on Friday, but after the night is over, they still go home to the same bed. Each moment together feels like the first time, new and exciting, but they’re already painfully domestic. Ezekiel make them late for work, Jake eats all of the cereal again, and they both go upstairs one day to yell at their obnoxious neighbors.

The others at the Library don’t seem surprised, although Cassandra was still confused, because _were you guys just roommates before, or is this something that’s been going on for a while?_ _I couldn’t tell_. Ezekiel starts laughing about it, and Jacob rolls his eyes.

Ezekiel still wakes up gasping from nightmares sometimes, but with Jacob to help him, and a bit of help from Eve and Jenkins, he was learning to handle it. They have their first fight because Ezekiel starts sleeping at the Library instead, thinking he shouldn’t be inconveniencing Jacob when he doesn’t think he’s getting better. That same day, Jake tracks him down at the Library just to stay with him there too. He’s still angry, but Ezekiel is never an ‘inconvenience’. Ezekiel doesn’t try to argue about it again.

It’s over month in, and Jacob doesn’t remember the last time he slept in his own bed without Ezekiel next to him. Ezekiel’s got a handful of his clothes in a drawer, and he’s slowly taking over the bathroom with products Jake can’t pronounce the names of (“Don’t be dramatic. I know you speak French.”). But he hasn’t moved in, and Jacob still hasn’t given him a key, so he technically doesn’t live there.

“I still don’t know where your apartment is,” Jacob muses one morning.

“Yeah. That might be because it’s in Paris.”

Jacob does a double take, and is squinting at Ezekiel when he asks, “What?”

Ezekiel grins at him, a little sheepish. “I never moved to Portland,” he admits. “I didn’t think that the Librarian gig was going to last long, and I worked it out with Jenkins that he’d set the Backdoor to Paris at the end of the day. Which did work well when we weren’t working as a team.”

“So, when you started showing up here…”

“I figured it would annoy you. You’re cute when you get all blustery,” Ezekiel admits, before wrinkling his nose. “Plus, Jenkins is kind of a vindictive bastard and will literally drop me anywhere in Paris. He thought it was dumb to still live there.”

“It kinda was.”

“Eh. Personal opinions. Anyway, taking the bus to your apartment is faster than trying to figure out where the hell in Paris I was. So, shorter commute and I got to be alone with you for a few minutes a day. It worked out.” He shrugs, and flops over so his head is in Jacob’s lap. “Besides, you never kicked me out, and you bought a couch for me. That’s true love right there.”

Jacob laughs. “Maybe I just liked making fun of your bedhead every morning.”

“It can be both.”

Shaking his head, Jacob thinks about it. Ezekiel lives in fucking Paris. He feels like he should be surprised, but that’s definitely something Ezekiel would do.

“That commute is pretty awful,” he eventually mentions.

“Yup.”

“Have you considered _actually_ moving in with me, instead of whatever we’re doing now?”

Ezekiel rolls his eyes. “Where’s the fun in that?”

(-:-)

Jacob finds fifteen full moving boxes in front of his door a week later, and can’t decide whether he’s happy about it or if he’s annoyed that his boyfriend completely blocked their doorway.

Ezekiel laughs so hard at the face he makes that he falls off the couch.


End file.
